Review - Guy Edwardes 'Seeing the Light', 11 Mar 2019

The Brownsword Hall was packed to full capacity for our long-awaited and greatly anticipated talk by Guy Edwardes. We were delighted to welcome visitors too.

Guy, of course, is an old friend of the club and a past member so we know what a fantastic photographer he is and we were all looking forward to seeing his new work as well as some of his favourites from the last 25 years. We weren't disappointed!

In the first half Guy showed us some of his amazing nature photography - frogs in Costa Rica, Owls in Canada, Pelicans in Greece, Orca Whales in Scotland last year - to name just a few of the many and varied photos he showed us from all around the world. I love owls, so it was the owls that made it for me, and there was one of a red fox in Japan that I adored as well and some gorgeous New Forset fungi, and the leopards in Botswana, and the cranes, and that incredible dragonfly at Powerstock..... in fact everything was wonderful and the lucky winner of a voucher for one of Guy's prints in the raffle is going to have a very hard time choosing!

In the second half we were treated to Guy's landscape photography, again from all around the world - including some superb shots taken close to home of Corfe Castle in the mist, and Gold Hill and the Durdle Door area in last year's snow. We saw beautiful photos from Iceland, Scotland,The Dolomites, Tuscany, Cornwall, Provence, Bulgaria and Slovenia. He also showed us some drone and astro-photography, new skills he is quickly perfecting. Again the work was so stunning and of such a high quality that it's very hard to pick out a favourite - perhaps the series of images of Provence as it's a place that I love.

Guy didn't just talk about his photos however, he told us how he took them with focus stacking, multiple exposures and other techniques that I have yet to master! We learnt about his aperture, ISO and shutter speeds - he was very generous with the tips that he shared. The time and effort that went to into every incredible photo was astounding. He has such patience and dedication - a true master! He told us about the equipment he uses and how he carries everything everywhere, and he demonstrated his favourite tripod. I wish I could be as ruthless in photo-processing too. He explained how he could put dozens and dozens of photos up onto Lightroom just as thumbnails and the select just one, the very best, and then delete all the rest unseen. I always keep everything, just in case...so that could be why my hard drive is always full! I wish I had his confidence to select and delete the rejects and he clearly makes the right decisions as every photo was a winner!

So - a review full of superlatives, but how could a review of Guy's amazing photography be anything else? Guy runs workshops and courses; he sells his work, he is on Facebook, Instagram and twitter, so do follow him to find out about his latest projects.